Kendricks was an economics major at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Before he was taken by the Rangers in 2011 and before he went to Dartmouth, Hendricks was originally drafted by the Angels out of high school in the 39th round in 2008. Hendricks' father, John, had worked in their ticket office. But Kyle went for the Ivy League education. "I told the Angels, 'Thanks, but it's going to be hard to pass up this opportunity,'" Hendricks told ESPN.com. "I figured college was the best place for me to be."

Dartmouth has produced a number of Major Leaguers, including pitchers Pete Broberg and Mike Remlinger. But going from Southern California to New Hampshire isn't exactly the most direct route to baseball success.

"My goal has always been to pitch in the Majors, so it was a tough decision to go to Dartmouth," said Hendricks, a graduate of Capistrano Valley High in Orange County. "But I couldn't pass up the chance for an Ivy League education."

Drafted after his junior season, Hendricks still needs to complete a few courses for his degree in economics, with a minor in math.

In 2013, Hendricks were named the Cubs organization's Minor League Pitcher of the Year.

In 2014, Baseball America rated Kyle as the 11th-best prospect in the Cubs organization.

Hendricks already made sure to take advantage of the opportunity to earn his degree, going back to school over two winters to finish after signing with the Rangers back in 2011.

The 2014-15 offseason was the first time Kyle didn't have to open a textbook, having completed his finance degree at Dartmouth. So his offseason featured golf, visits with family and friends, plus baseball workouts.

"The kid is a gentleman in every aspect until he takes the mound, and then there's every attribute that you would want in a kid from a competitive aspect in a Division I level and at the professional level," Dartmouth coach Bob Whalen said.

While Hendricks credited Whalen with helping him learn when he needs to step off the mound and not work so quickly, Whalen said he arrived at the New Hampshire school with that mound presence.

"He is one of the few kids that can translate that from the way you see him when you meet him to the way he performs athletically," Whalen said. "He's always been able to regulate his thought process and his tempo and he just never allowed the game to speed up on him." (Jay Cohen - AP Sports Writer - 2/05/15)

Off the field, Kyle likes to hang out with his family and "lay low." He also plays a little golf.

If I wasn't a baseball pitcher, I'd be: "I would definitely have tried to be a professional golfer. My dad's a golf pro."

2018 Spring Training: Hendricks wanted to make sure Special Olympics athlete Ella Stoklosa had a great time at a Spring Training game, even if it meant that he wasn't her favorite Cubs player for the entire time.

Hendricks, who is a special ambassador to Special Olympics Illinois, and believed to be the first Major League Baseball player in that role, hosted Stoklosa, 27, of Wheeling, Ill., on March 3. She has Down syndrome, but that doesn't stop her. Stoklosa competes in nine sports and showed up at the Cubs' complex wearing a Hendricks' jersey.

"She warned me," Hendricks said. "[She said] 'I'm going to wear your jersey -- but can I see [Kris Bryant]? I have his jersey, too.' I said, 'I can get anything you need.' "As soon as [Bryant] walks around the corner, she's got my jersey off and his is on," Hendricks said, laughing. "I didn't even see her change -- it took her two seconds. It was so funny."

Hendricks has taken on the Special Olympics as his cause, and has done so quietly, as is his style. "For some reason, there's never been a spokesperson for Special Olympics from Major League Baseball," said Hendricks. His yoga instructor, Christine Schwan, introduced him to some people in Special Olympics Illinois, and they did a yoga session with some of the athletes.

"Once I did that, it was over," Hendricks said of the commitment to the organization. "You have so much fun with these athletes and they bring us so much joy. Plus, there's the ability for my wife, Emma, to be involved in it -- it kind of just fell into our laps. We're always looking to give back and do something. We have some things in our family, [people with] different diseases, but we were open to anything and it didn't have to be something that affected our family." (Carrie Muskat- MLB.com -Mar. 10, 2018)

2018 season: Kyle Hendricks may not show emotion on the mound, but smiles come easily when he's not between the foul lines. Especially when he's talking about his walk-up song. The always-self-aware Hendricks understands the running joke about his expressionless demeanor and comes out to Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" when pitching or hitting at Wrigley Field. He'll use the same song again in 2018.

"No reason to change it now," he said, smirking. "Gotta give the people what they want." (Tony Andracki -NBC Sports -April 09, 2018)

TRANSACTIONS

June 2011: The Rangers chose Kyle in the 8th round, out of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.

July 31, 2012: The Cubs sent RHP Ryan Dempster to the Rangers, acquiring Hendricks and 3B Christian Villanueva.

March 4, 2016: The Cubs and Hendricks agreed to a one-year deal for $541,000. (Editor's note: What a bargain -- he led the NL in ERA in 2016.)

Hendricks has an 87-90 mph two-seam SINKER; an 88-93 mph four-seam FASTBALL; a decent 77-80 mph CURVEBALL; an 86-89 mph CUTTER; and a plus 79-82 mph CHANGEUP (60 on the 20-80 scouting scale), which is his best pitch. He will throw the change in any count. (May 2016)

Kyle doesn't light up the radar gun, but he makes up in finesse what he lacks in power. He is a command-oriented starting pitcher. He reads a hitters swing and disrupts his timing.

2016 Season Pitch Usage: 4-seam Fastball: 21.7% of the time; Sinker 43.2% of the time; Change 27.1%; and Curve 8% of the time.

Kyle outsmarts hitters. And he has good stuff. He's not a thrower, he's a pitcher, with the key being that he puts the ball where he wants to. He doesn't beat himself when he's on the mound.

"You watch him pitch and you can never tell what he's throwing," Rangers minor league manager Tim Hulett said. "His pitching tempo is always the same, whether its a fastball or a changeup. He's just got a good idea out there with great composure and great presence on the mound."

April 2015: Hendricks is known for his very good command and pitching smarts. He gets a 70 for his control on the 20-80 scouting scale. His well-thought-out approach to pitching is what you'd expect from an Ivy Leaguer.

He limits damage because he rarely misses over the middle of the plate, instead keeping the ball down and on the corners, and at the top and bottom of the zone. He sticks to the scouting report and relies on command and deception to exploit hitters' weaknesses.

"He's an intelligent guy,” one evaluator said before 2015 spring training. “He needs to be a little bit finer because he doesn’t throw hard. He’s always been invested in the game, and he has the feel and intelligence to pitch.”

In November 2013, Baseball America's John Manuel had this to say about Kendricks: "I don’t have a scouting report with a plus grade on it. He has very good control and decent command of a four-pitch mix, but it’s not premium command. He’s a strike-thrower without a plus pitch. He had about as good a year as any minor league pitcher had in 2013. It’s just hard to see Hendricks being more than a fifth starter."

2014: "Kyle is intelligent, and I think he has a real good feel for himself, and he understands what he has to do to be successful and his routine and his plans are all very, very good," said Derek Johnson, the Cubs' Minor League pitching coordinator. "He knows he has to stay poised with his stuff. I think he's more rattled now, and you'd never know it. That's the unique part of it. He's in big league camp, a little bit nervous, and you'd never know."

"He's a guy who, over his career and as we've seen, he's a pitcher," Cubs manager Rick Renteria said. "He can really dominate the zone. He tries to work both sides of the plate. When we saw him in an intrasquad game, he was doing exactly what he does—he stays down in the zone, hits both sides of the plate, mixes his pitches well. That's the same thing he'll have to do at the Major League level. Is it possible for him to do that? Absolutely."

Johnson feels the same way. "I think he understands what he has to do to get hitters out," Johnson said. "He pays attention to what they're trying to do against him. He understands situations."

Kyle induces weak contact. A really good comparison: Greg Maddux.

2014 Season: Hendricks' accuracy, combined with his meticulous pregame preparation and countless hours of video work, took him to another level once he reached the Majors in July. In 13 big league starts, Kyle put up a 7-2 record with a 2.46 ERA, went 5.1 innings in 12 of 13 starts, and gave up more than two runs in just 3 of those efforts.

Kyle's finest work of his rookie season came during a six-game stretch from July 22-August 18, in which he surrendered no more than one run in any game and twice recorded no earned runs.

Taylor Teagarden had never caught Kyle before a 2015 Spring Training game. Apparently, Teagarden adjusts well, because Hendricks threw five perfect innings that day against the Athletics.

"I understood what he does well," Teagarden said of Hendricks, who is projected as the Cubs' fourth starter. "He can manipulate the fastball, commands it real well, keeps the ball out of the heart of the plate, changes speeds and works relatively fast. He did all those things fairly consistently and induced a lot of weak contact. I think we were on the same page."

Hendricks is far from an intimidating presence on the mound. Near the end of the 2016 season, Kyle's fastball average was just 87.6 mph, which was 71st out of 78 qualified pitchers—and two of the guys behind him are knuckleballers. Kyle looks every bit the Dartmouth economics major he actually is.

Unlike most pitchers, Hendricks likes to throw off the mound twice between starts, and he's been doing a lot more long toss, a preferred workout of his, all season.

"I basically throw two shorter bullpens," Kyle said, "I've noticed it just helps me touching the mound more and getting some reps. I think because I'm that command-type guy. It just helps me stay sharper, and I don't really fatigue too much from it."

Kyle has become a true pitcher, someone who methodically studies game plans and breaks down hitters' tendencies. He knows what works for him, and understands how to exploit an opposing offense's weaknesses.

Hendricks has the pitch mix and command to hit every quadrant of the zone. In other words, if you have a weakness, he can attack it.

That is the art of pitching. Pitching is not just throwing as hard as you can. Pitching is just having the art to actually change the speeds, change eye levels, move the batter and things like that. (Gary Cohen - Vine Line - October, 2016)

In 2016, Hendricks led the Major Leagues with a 2.13 ERA.

In 2016, Hendricks was selected as the NL's most Outstanding Pitcher for the Players Choice Award.

As of the start of the 2019 season, Kyle has a career record of 52-33 with 3.07 ERA, having allowed 75 home runs and 690 hits in 789 innings.